Rain and Sprains
by kakomaan
Summary: Just read the story and enjoy is all I ask of you. BA


AN:So here this is. I know I have other things that I'm supposed to be writing right now, but they're refusing to cooperate. I'll finish them soon hopefully, seeing as this is all I pretty much have to do this week apart from cleaning the house and doing my APUSH homework. Enjoy!

Standing in the rain, in the dead of the night, is not the smartest thing to do. He was smart, so he knew better…but that didn't make a difference. He still stood there, taking in the rain, basking in the darkness. As of now, it was his only lifeline; the rain told him he was alive, the darkness reflecting his emotions and showing his inner turmoil. His face was stony, as if etched in stone, but his eyes were always looking around, ever vigilant…constantly vigilant. He wasn't normally a person who would stand in the dark and the rain, but desperate circumstances called for desperate actions, and this was only the beginning of those so called desperate actions. He flexed his hands, trying to get the warmth back into them before he started his journey. It probably was the first time he had moved in a while. His eyes scanned his environment once more, and deciding that it was safe, he moved. At first, he walked stiffly, still trying to work the kinks out of his body from his state of rest. Several strides later, he was walking smoothly, his long legs gracefully crossing the concrete sidewalks and paved streets. He moved with purpose; his mind was focused. He kept walking, the clothes he wore had long since been drenched from his earlier escapades into the rain. The distance he covered in the span hour he normally could not have covered within the night, but he was determined.

Frighteningly determined.

The only people out on the street this late at night took little notice of the intruder of their area, just a passing glance was given to him. Although, the few that were territorial looked at him and saw that he moved with a deadly grace, and wisely left him alone. He kept his pace until he came to the corner of St. Henry Street. He came to halt on the corner and looked down the street at the houses that lined the left side and the apartment complex that lined the other. Even now that he moved more slowly, taking great care to look at the street numbers, he still moved as if he owned the world. He finally came to the entrance of the apartment complex; typing in the door combination, he entered the building. Striding across the nearly dark hallway, a thought surfaced from his single tracked mind and passed as quickly as it had risen. 'It's dangerous to not have any lights in the entry way of this complex.' He pushed the call button for the elevator, then decided that he wanted more time and made his way to the stairwell. He made his way to the fourth floor and gently opened the door.

And this was where his steps faltered for the first time that night.

The one track mind that had gotten him to this place in record time on foot and filled him with confidence had suddenly descended into a mass of jumbled, confusing thoughts.

'Oh shit. I can't do this.' That seemed to be the main train of thought his mind was taking. He kept walking however, until he was staring at the door that seemed to have drained him of his confidence. He let himself lean back against the adjacent wall and slid down so that he was sitting with his long legs extended out in front of him, his feet resting against the far wall.

The first words he spoke for the whole ordeal was, "Oh shit." That seemed to unleash a torrential of words to come spilling out of his mouth. "What the hell was I thinking, coming here tonight? Am I really that stupid? I guess I am!" He laughed derisively. "To think…to think that I would be able to this…stupid! Stupid! STUPID!" He immediately fell silent and listened for any noises. The whole situation was beginning to wear him down and he had to suppress a yawn. Another thing that was unusual for him; but apparently tonight was the night for him to be doing things out of character. He strained his ears once more to try and pick up any sounds and not hearing any, he returned to his rant. "To think that I could actually have a chance with her! Preposterous! Besides…she could do so much better than me. I'm just the son of a schizophrenic mother and a drunken and abusive father, why would anybody want me? I'm nothing compared to her. She's prefect, and I'm just the piece of gum that she gets off of her shoe…" He trailed off as he heard the sound of shoes squeaking on the linoleum floor and people talking. Realizing that he would have to move and quickly, he stood up and started to make his way rather quickly down the hallway. Halfway there, he tripped and landed with a rather painful thud. He knew he was too late when he heard two different voices, one male and one extremely familiar female come closer and eventually turned the corner. He stayed on the ground and hoped that they didn't notice him, or if they did, they would just pass him off as just a drunk who didn't make it into his apartment. He listened in on their conversation.

"So Alex, I'm glad you finally decided to call me back."

"I had fun. You're a really nice guy, Greg." The man on the floor grunted softly. 'I'm going to slowly take your fingernails off of your hands, Greg.' He immediately felt guilty. He wasn't a mean person and he didn't own his partner.

"I was kind of hoping that we could talk some more about your job." The man on the floor grunted once more. This was a half grunt of pain and a half grunt of disbelief. 'The man was trying to get into Alex's apartment, and my wrist is on fire.'

"Did you hear something?" Alex spoke, apparently having heard his grunt. She looked at the floor and noticed that it was wet. She then followed the trail of water to the man lying in a heap in front of another door. Greg tried to regain Alex's attention.

"No, I didn't hear anything. But I was wondering…" He trailed off as Alex raised her hand and started to move towards the man on the floor.

"Sir? Are you alright?" The man however, was having a massive panic attack, so he was very close to hyperventilating, but he managed to choke out a,

"Fine."

"You don't sound fine sir."

"Alex, I'm not sure that it's safe…" Greg was cut off once more by Alex's hand. The man on the ground started to try and move away from Alex and hissed in pain as he put pressure on his left hand. His wrist screamed out in pain, and he added another grunt to his hiss.

"Sir." She paused. "Are you new here? I haven't seen you before."

"Please, just leave me alone." He said though clenched teeth. Greg tried one more time.

"Alex, I think you should listen to him." Alex turned around to face Greg.

"You wanted to know more about my job? Start watching, this is it." Greg looked confused. "Helping people." The man on the floor let out a snort of amusement. Greg snapped at him.

"What in the hell do you find funny?"

"Nothing." And the man on the floor tried to hoist himself up with the support of the wall. Placing his left hand on the wall, was the unwise choice considering. He hissed once more in pain and fell to his knees.

"Sir, please. Let me just see your wrist. You've obviously hurt it."

"My pride hurts worse right now." And his mouth clicked shut, realizing that he had just said that out loud.

"Bobby?" Bobby sighed. 'Crap.' He shifted himself so that he would only need his right hand to stand up and he stood and turned around.

"I'll just be going now."

"No you will not. My apartment, now." Bobby shuffled guilty towards her apartment, but was stopped by Greg.

"Wait a minute. Who the hell are you?" Bobby was about to speak but Alex cut across him.

"He is my partner." She gave Bobby a slight shove towards her apartment. "Let yourself in, I have to talk some more with Greg." Bobby nodded his head. Greg looked livid.

"He has your key?" Bobby heard the angry tones in Greg's voice. 'Great. He's trying to draw me into a pissing match.'

"You know what, Alex? I think I'll just see you tomorrow. Bye." Bobby started to walk away but Alex grabbed him by his still wet jacket and jerked him to a halt. He looked over his shoulder at his partner and sighed, seeing the look she was giving him and knew that he wouldn't be able to leave soon. He once more started for her apartment and reached into his pocket for his keys. Greg had finally decided that talking wasn't going to work for him and he grabbed Bobby's left hand. Bobby's face immediately contorted in pain. Greg smiled slightly, seeing as Alex couldn't see them, and mouthed the word, "Mine." And suddenly, Bobby's pain was nothing in compared to the anger he was feeling.

"Alex," he spoke out loud, figuring that Alex should know what and ass this guy was. "Is not any person's except her own. Just because you went out on one date with her, does not make her yours. Now if you could kindly let go off my injured hand, it hurts, and I'd like to get out of my wet clothes." Greg was livid and moved to appeal to Alex, but her whole appearance was radiating anger.

"Leave now please, or else I'll arrest you for assaulting an officer." Greg let go of Bobby's hand.

"Fine." He opened his mouth to say something else, but realized that it would probably not be a wise idea. He turned around and stalked down the hallway and left the two detectives alone. Now that Bobby wasn't as angry anymore, he winced; his wrist was throbbing even more now and it was not a pleasant feeling. It did not go unnoticed by Alex and she moved to open the door. Once it was open, she gestured with her arm and said,

"Inside." He went inside and sat on her couch. She followed after dead bolting her door and walked into the bathroom. She came back holding a first aid kit and pulled the table that sat in front of the couch closer to Bobby. "Wrist please." Bobby complied, and she reached out and took his hand into hers, gently feeling for any breaks in his wrist from the hand up. Bobby winced slightly, but he found that Alex's touch took away some of the pain. "Well you're lucky it's not broken." She turned and pulled out some ACE bandage from the kit. "It's only sprained." Slowly, she started wrapping the bandage around his wrist. "Do you wan to tell me how you hurt it?" Bobby shifted uneasily on the couch.

"It's just…embarrassing." She raised her eyebrows at him and he sighed. "I tripped and fell."

"Really." Bobby nodded. "You didn't hurt it at work, so when did you do it?"

"Just now." Bobby had said that through his teeth. 'The reason I was over here was stupid and now I've got an injury to add to the insult of this damned night. Why, Lord, do you continue to punish me? You're probably laughing about it, too.' Alex, noticing that Bobby was withdrawing into himself, gently tapped him on the face.

"Bobby. Time to join me back here."

"Look, I'm really sorry to cut your date short, and I shouldn't have been here…so I'll just leave." Bobby stood up and moved towards the door.

"Bobby!" He stopped. "I'm really glad that you were there to end the date. The guy was a prick and I wasn't sure if me telling him no would have actually stopped him from coming in." Bobby turned back around.

"Really?"

"I even tried to call you, but it went straight to voice mail."

"It died as I was going home. I forgot to charge it." She rolled her eyes at him.

"Why don't you get out of those wet clothes? You look like a drowned rat." Bobby's reply was filled with sarcasm.

"Oh thank you. That was _exactly_ the look I was going for." And he moved off down the hall to get his bag and then moved into the bathroom.

And realized just how big of a problem he had on his hands.

He was left handed, so that was naturally his dominant hand. Now that moving it hurt like being run over by a steamroller, he would have to use his right hand. Setting into the task, he tried to unbutton his shirt, but the buttons were proving to be a worthy adversary to his hand.

"Shit." Alex, who was conveniently walking by the door at that time, stopped and turned to face the door.

"Bobby? Are you alright?" 'Crap!' Bobby knew that this was not going to end well, the situation screamed disaster.

"I'm just peachy."

"Bobby, you don't use the word 'peachy.' What's wrong?" Bobby's shoulders sagged in defeat.

"Eames, you know that I'm left handed."

"Yeah?" She paused, then understanding dawned. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh." There was silence for a while, then,

"Bobby? Open the door." Bobby made an odd noise, and then opened the door. Alex had to resist the urge to laugh. There stood her 6'4" partner with a look of great discomfort on his face and water dripping off of his nose. "I see you got the water out of your hair." The water dropped off of his nose while he blinked. "Well let's get this started." 'Don't look at her face. Don't look at her face. Don't look… this is so not good.' He had glanced down as she unbuttoned his shirt and saw her tongue poking slightly out of her mouth. 'She's too damn adorable.' He let his head fall back so that he wouldn't have to look at her through the whole ordeal.

"You ok, Bobby?"

"Hmm?"

"I mean, you come to my apartment in the middle of the night, apparently on foot, completely drenched, and somehow hurt your wrist in my hallway waiting for me. I mean you had to have come here for a reason." As she finished her sentence, she removed his shirt. She grabbed a towel from the towel rack and started to dry his chest. On the outside, Bobby looked as calm as could be, but on the inside, he was doing all he could not to grab her and kiss her senseless. 'This is going to kill me.'

"Yeah. But I forgot." She looked up at his face, momentarily stopping in her drying process.

"Right."

"Well I remember that it was stupid."

"Stupid enough for you to march all the way across the city and sit and wait for me dripping wet?" 'Why the hell does she keep bringing up the fact that I'm wet?'

"Not at the time, no. But looking back it was stupid."

"Bobby, have any of your ideas ever been stupid?"

"Uhh."

"Exactly." Bobby stepped back and closed his eyes. Her proximity and the fact that he was standing half naked in front of her suddenly seemed too much for him to handle. He bumped into the toilet and sat down. "Bobby? Are you ok?" Concern was pouring off of Alex and she moved closer to Bobby.

"Please…" But it trailed of into oblivion and she rested her hand on his forehead, then his cheek, and then his chest. Bobby gasped. Alex removed her hand as if it was burned.

"Did I hurt you? What's wrong? Bobby, you're starting to freak me out here."

"Fine…fine…nothing wrong." Bobby realized what was going on as soon as it had started; he was hyperventilating. Alex stood there for a few seconds, then disappeared, only to return minutes later with a paper bag. She handed it to Bobby, who accepted it and immediately placed it over his mouth. 'In…out…in…out…in…out…in.'

Alex sat on the tub and watched her partner try and calm himself down. She wondered what could have set him off. Then, looking at him a little harder, she saw something…new. Of course, it wasn't exactly new. She had seen him in this light before, several times, but she had shoved it into the back of her mind. Now that she saw him hyperventilating, she understood why he was acting so weird. It was because of her. The reason he was here, the reason he was hyperventilating, it was all because of her. Now that she had determined that little tidbit of a fact, she had to determine whether or not that was a good thing or a bad thing. She noticed that he was calming down, and tilted her head to catch his eyes.

"You ok?" Bobby nodded.

"Better…Just been…having…a rough…night." Silence reigned in the bathroom.

"Bobby?" He looked up from the floor to look at her face. "Do you…?" Realizing that it probably wasn't the best thing to ask, she trailed off. "Never mind."

"Alex, what is it?"

"Nothing. It was nothing."

"Uh-uh. Has anything you've every said been nothing?" She gave him a look to show that she wasn't amused. He gave a look that said he wasn't joking. "I may not seem to be paying attention most of the time to anyone, but I always pay attention when you speak." She nodded. "So what were you going to say?"

"That…uh…are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?" Bobby sighed.

"Not really. But maybe some coffee?" Bobby said, understanding Alex's need to avoid the topic. She nodded and moved out of the bathroom. Bobby stood, realizing that this could be the moment he came here for, and made his way into the kitchen. He stood in the doorway and watched her move around the kitchen. The sight he saw brought a small smile to his face. She moved gracefully around the room, stopping here and there to get the things she needed for the coffee. Deciding to do what he came here to do, he spoke,

"Alex?" She jumped and turned around.

"What's up Bobby?"

"The reason I came here…I remembered." 'As if I could forget.' Alex turned back to the coffee machine.

"Oh really."

"Yup. It's quiet interesting actually. You see, there's this person I know, quite attractive. And well, I like her…a lot." Alex hadn't turned around even though the coffee no longer needed attention. Her shoulders had tensed, and he could see her reflection in the window and saw that she looked close to tears. He started talking faster in order to prevent her from breaking down into to tears while he was talking. "But I work with her, so I'm worried of the consequences if everyone else found out about it. I trust her with my life and pretty much every thing else. And I've felt this way about her for a while now…" Alex spoke with a strained voice.

"So why aren't you having her patch up your wounds?"

"She already did."

"What?" Bobby moved closer to her and looked down at her face.

"I'm already with her. You, Alex."

"I, uh, really?"

"Really." She looked shyly up at Bobby.

"You know…I seem to be in a similar predicament." Bobby smiled as they moved closer to each other.

"Oh really?"

"Yup. He's a 6'4" detective and I happen to sit across from him everyday at work."

"Mm. Sounds good looking." Alex laughed.

"Judging by what I'm seeing, he's very good looking." And with that, they finally met in the middle of her kitchen.

xXxXxXx

Epilogue

xXxXxXx

"I thought I told you that I don't like it when you stand in the rain. You drip all over the carpet and then it's hell to clean out." Bobby rolled his eyes and smiled.

"Yes dear." Alex moved back into the living room.

"And don't you take that tone with me."

"Oh dad, you're in trouble."

"Hush William." He gave an eye roll akin to his father's and turned his attention back to the TV. Bobby came into the living room and followed his wife into the kitchen. He smiled at his 9 year old daughter and came up behind his wife and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Hey honey." Alex smiled at him over her shoulder and focused back on the dinner. "I've taught you well."

"That you have. I used to be a wreck in the kitchen."

"Now…not so much." She turned around and playfully shoved him.

"We've had a lot of good times in a kitchen." Bobby smiled.

"Yup. And to think, it started 16 years ago."

"Has it really been that long?"

"Let's see. We got married in 2005, right?"

"You better remember that." He gave her a small smile.

"Of course I remember. We had William the next year."

"He's almost 16."

"That's just scary."

"Stop it." They were both smiling as they walked down memory lane together.

"Then little…"

"I'm not little anymore!"

"Of course not Lily." Lily glared at her father. "You know, Alex? She has your glare." Alex chuckled. "Any ways, we had the not so little anymore Lily in 2013." Lily gave a satisfied nod. "And here we are nine years later."

"So it has been that long." Bobby nodded.

"All thanks to a sprained wrist and the rain."

"Which is why you go out every once and a while and indulge in the rain."

"Correct."

"At least you don't sprain your wrist every other day."

"No. I've decided that would be unwise. More poor wrists wouldn't last a month."

"True." She turned the stove off and set the pan on the side. "You could barely handle the time you did it in my apartment hallway. Moaning about how much it hurt the next day at work."

"Whatever. William, dinner!" With the food at the table and his family all around him, looking back at what started it all, Alex had been right.

It really wasn't a stupid idea that he came here that night.

AN: I feel that the ending is a little weak. I fixed it and I fixed it and it just wouldn't cooperate. But I felt that this one was the best so...yeah. Feel free to drop a review to tell me what you thought of it. I would love you more than air.


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